Online Course Creator

Interview with

How long have you been doing what you do and how did you get to be an online course creator alchemist?

I have a love for learning and how people learn since I was born probably, but a defining moment was when I started to study Mandarin with a French distance course, at the age of 15. The course was so well designed and educating its students at the same time that I not only learned Chinese, but I also learned how to learn!

After my first Master in teaching French as a foreign language, I soon realized that teaching in a classroom wasn’t an option for me: I wanted each student to be able to customize their learning, learn whatever they wanted to learn, not what an institution thought they needed to know! So I joined a Master in Knowledge Mediation and Multilinguism, with a specialty in “computer-assisted learning”.

I have been working in the (e)learning industry since then, in France for 5 years, Singapore for a year, New Zealand for 7 years and Canada for 4 years.

My clients were mainly from the corporate world for 15 years, when I started to feel a calling to help individuals and small companies. I have been experiencing coaching for myself with a fitness coach, a relationship coach and a life coach; the transformation has been so revolutionary amazing for me that I realized I wanted to work more for people like these wonderful coaches. The work is different, but its roots are similar to what I have been doing for a long time now, so I enjoy using my skills to serve people I love and admire deeply!

Who are your clients exactly?

I work with people just like you in private practice and other independent professionals who are really good at what they do: making a difference in people’s lives; however, they are at full capacity and want to reach a new level in their business, by serving more people. They believe an online program is a good solution, but they don’t know where to start, how to develop it, what technology to use, etc.

Here are some of the professions I’ve worked with so far:

Life coaches

Midlife coaches

Relationship coaches

Business coaches

HR specialists

Sales experts

Nutritional Therapy Practitioner & Wellness Coaches

Video professionals

What happens if you haven’t yet worked with people in my field?

The principles I apply to everything I do are universal. They are based in science, especially the latest research in neuroscience applied to learning. When I was working for my corporate clients, I tackled topics from the cement production to sales, passing by software tutorials, engineering, beer brewing and food and safety; this is what I adore about my job: discovering new information, learning! I was once told by a packaging expert at L’Oreal, for whom I have designed an animation explaining the supply chain, that she thought I was working in the field, since I ask so pertinent questions!

I took in the compliment! I am a quick learner, and if you are passionate about what you do, I will learn even faster.The less I know about a topic, the more I ask questions, naïve questions sometimes, but until it’s clear to me, I keep asking, because chances are it won’t be clear to your target audience either! In sum: your field doesn’t matter, what matters is what you want to achieve, and I can guide you to do just that.

How are you different from other course creators?

Good question! There are more and more online course specialists out there. Since 18 years, my approach is not based on the tools we use to create your course, nor on your sales funnel, I leave that to other specialists. My focus is on your content and on how it will help your ideal client LEARN better, CHANGE more easily and THRIVE faster. I really put a lot of emphasis on the content before all as I believe that well-organized text on paper can be super efficient to learn (of course a video or a nice adequate picture can help with the learning, but the core efficiency of a course is in the content organization).

I specialize in storytelling and fun stuff.

I am direct and like to joke a lot. I am practical and pragmatic and am developing a more spiritual side to my personality. Maybe that speaks to you!

What type of personality do you work best with and what is expected of me?

I always found that I work better with people who:

Are passionate about what they do

Are open to new ideas and new ways to do things

Are found of (minimum) 80% cocoa chocolate (I am not yet at 100% but working my way there)

That said, I am practical, pragmatic, straight to the point, and with little tolerance for people who complain about their situation and are not doing anything to change it. If you work with me, expect to be gently pushed and challenged.

For what type of professional are these programs NOT going to work?

I designed my programs for people who are already successful: they have a full practice, they give many workshops and they have tons of material they refined over the years. They are ready for their next level: serving more people without sacrificing their lives, and they will do this by extracting their expertise and translate it into an online programme.

So if you are a young professional or you are just starting in a new field and you hope that creating an online course will help you attract more clients, but you don’t know who exactly is going to buy or to whom you are going to market your program, then I advise you wait a little bit longer and find your tribe first.

What exactly are the “So you really want to create an online course? — The VIP treatment” and the “So you want to create your very own online course? — The I hold your hand program”?

I have created two programs with two types of people in mind. Those who want to create a course without worrying about its look but focus on the content will be happy with the “I hold your hand program”, where we select the content together, organize it and where I integrate it very quickly in a preformatted template with your logo. The content is very unique, but the menu and its colors are predetermined. Think of it as a Ted Talk: always the same format, 17 minutes, a speaker and some visuals, but soooo many different content.

Those who are ready for a more customized course designed just for them will love the VIP treatment. The process is similar, but we spend much more time creating templates and specific items for them.

What results can I expect?

Expect to quickly create a course that:

Helps you prepare your learners/clients for face-to-face sessions with you

Provide your learners/clients with some practice activities or reinforcement AFTER a session with you

Brings you some additional revenue while serving more people at the same time

Makes you want to create more products!

For the “I hold your hand program”, the application I use to assemble your content is called Modlettes. It allows you to follow the progress of your learners and doesn’t require any hosting, domain name or any other plugin; this is the reason why I am using it: simplicity! You can expect me to create a course at light speed once we have settled the content together.

The course is accessible from a cell phone, a tablet or a PC or Mac.

How quickly can I expect results?

Obviously, this depends on how much time we can spend together at the very beginning of your project, when we select the content and organise it together. If you are super available, we can create your development plan in one week and develop it in 3 to 4 weeks.

Of course, it also depends on the options you will have selected: do you want a superb 3D animation or are you happy with a photo you provided to us? Do you want to shoot some videos? Record some audio? Do you want to do it yourself or are you happy to delegate this task to someone else?

How can I guarantee myself that the course will work?

If you mean, “How do I know if people will learn as well online as they do with me face-to-face?” I can reassure you: I have been designing online courses since 1999, following closely the latest research on how people learn and how to design a course to be efficient. My hobbyhorse has always been: how can we measure that what we are doing is working? My clients know me for being a bit of a pain in the neck with this matter, as I keep asking, “OK, they need to know or understand that, but for what reason ultimately? In order to do what?” If it’s just “good to know” I advise that we don’t include that information in the course. We want to focus on what is absolutely mandatory to learn in order to achieve the objectives you promised they will reach at the end of your course!

I am often told, “But I can’t make them learn this, it depends on the interactions we have, in conversations.” To which I always reply, “Is there any pattern to what you do, things you repeat over and over, activities you do with your clients more than once? If so, then these are the elements we want to adapt online. The rest, the “what is unique about the relationship”, will remain unscripted.

Is your online presence as good as you?

Will I recover the investment I put into this program?

Having an online course will:

help you serve more people (=> make more money)

bring you some recurring revenue (=> more money)

A typical online course with a good added value sells for US$200—400, so you should recover your investment in less than a month if you sell more than 5 courses and take on more new clients, which we hope you do!

Hélène, based on everything I’ve read and heard about you, I know you’re the one I want to work with and learn from. What are my options for getting started with you?

Thank you for entrusting me with your digital content creation!

To get started with serving more clients, make more money and have more time off, and if it is the first time you are creating an online program, I suggest we start with the fastest and simplest package, the I Hold Your Hand program. This program contains everything you need to get your online course off the ground quickly and I do most of the work with you. We focus on your content.

If you are ready to play a bigger game and want to spend more time working on your online course to make it very unique, the VIP Treatmentis for you. More people will be working on your baby to make it look yummy. I will be very involved in the process too, managing your desires and a graphic design team on top of a strong focus on your content, as always (this is my favorite part!). This program also includes specific strategies to market your program.

How long is the program?

The I Hold Your Hand program is typically a 3 to 4-month program. It can be faster depending on the readiness of your material and the time you can spend with me at the beginning of the process. From my experience, there is always a learning curve at the beginning, when I ask you questions you never thought about before! That said, it is quite possible that you are very ready, that you matured your project in your head for quite a while and that we can start developing very quickly and that you have a solid course in 2 weeks!

The VIP Treatment is longer because it involves more people and you have to make more choices. A bit like creating a website, there are colors to consider, layouts, interactivities, feedback, user experience, etc. Again, it can be much faster than the typical 6-month process if your material is ready and we start developing quickly. It’s up to you!

OK, I know which program I want. How do we get started?

Yay! I love people who take action! I suggest you schedule a free 20-minute call with me to see if we are a good fit (we’ll listen to our guts!) and I’ll be happy to answer any questions you have. I can’t wait to meet you to get you started on your path to serving more clients, receiving more income and more time off to enjoy it all!

If I’m not sure I’m ready to get started, how can I sample your work at low cost to see if it’s the right solution for me?

Fair enough. I offer free tools and tips in my ebook, you can try to apply them to your project first and see how it goes. I suggest you contact my past clients, have a look at their content and discuss with them the creation process they went through.

I have a family and a busy life. Although I want to serve more clients badly, I don’t have much time to spare. How much time do I need?

I too have 2 (unschooled) children and a very busy life. I understand that you want to be time-efficient and that’s why working with me will save you lots of time. Expect to spend 3-4 hours at the beginning of the process to structure your program, then expect to spend a few hours refining some of your existing material or creating new material to suit your new medium.

It can be as little as 1 hour if everything is ready, or 20 hours if everything is in your head and you have to write it down. With the VIP Treatment program, I offer 2 VIP days where we work exclusively on your content (creating, rewriting, restructuring, editing) for 12 solid hours, so you have faster results.

OK, I’m ready to do this for myself, but I have a couple of additional questions. Can I call you?

Excellent! Yes, if you have a couple of questions, just schedule a Get Acquainted Call below and I’ll be happy to walk you through the different options to see which one will be the very best for you. I can’t wait to see you succeed and am honored to be the one to help you. Let’s get going!